Publications

01 Mar 2020
News

How Coronavirus Is Creating A Watershed Moment For Remote Work

Research Summary

Service Excellence by Design

By: Frances X. Frei

This research addresses how to design sustainable service models that deliver ongoing value to both customers and the firm. In particular, the research reveals three principles of effective service management (see View Details

13 Aug 2015
News

Google’s Alphabet Move Is Reorganizing 101

25 Jan 2011
News

The Leadership Learning Moment That Wasn't

Unlock the Mysteries of Your Customer Relationships

Consumers have always had relationships with brands, but sophisticated tools for analyzing customer data are finally allowing marketing organizations to personalize and manage those relationships. With this new power comes a new challenge: People now expect companies... View Details

29 Oct 2020
Blog Post

Delving Deeper into Development with the MBA/MPA-ID Program – a Q+A with Zainab Raji (MBA/MPA-ID 2022)

Can you share a bit about your background and where you grew up? Zainab Raji I am one of four children born to my Nigerian parents. I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest commercial hub, and in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city. I have fond... View Details

March 2019
Case

Mahindra Finance

By: V.G. Narayanan and Tanvi Deshpande

Mahindra Finance is a non-banking lender operating mainly in the rural and semi-urban areas of India. Set up in 1991, the company had grown to become a market leader with assets of $8.5 billion and a presence in 3,30,000 villages across India. Since most of Mahindra's... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Business Model; Volatility; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Credit; Financing and Loans; Service Delivery; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Services Industry; India

April 2020
Teaching Note

Glossier: Co-Creating a Cult Brand with a Digital Community

By: Jill Avery

Teaching Note for HBS No. 519-022. Flush with cash from its Series C fundraise, cult beauty brand Glossier considers its next phase of growth, facing critical decisions on how to allocate its capital to support various marketing communications and distribution... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Crowdsourcing; CRM; Startup; Direct-to-consumer; DTC; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Customer Relationship Management; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Social Media; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States

October 1999
Case

Overhead Reduction Task Force, The

By: J. Richard Hackman, Ruth Wageman and John J. Gabarro

A middle manager is about to meet with his boss to discuss her request that he head up a task force to determine how overhead can be reduced by 20%. He must decide what to address in that meeting and how the task force should be launched and led. The focus is on team... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Leadership Style; Management Teams; Management Style; Groups and Teams

September 2022
Case

BancoSol: Financial Inclusion in the Perfect Storm

By: Michael Chu and Carla Larangeira

In the pandemic, financial inclusion icon BancoSol faces a government-mandated year-long deferral of all loan payments, followed by the sudden Covid death of its CEO. In a Bolivia mired in political turmoil following a failed presidential election, with clients not... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Crisis Management; Management Succession; Business Strategy; Innovation Leadership; Risk and Uncertainty; Financing and Loans; Restructuring; Financial Services Industry; Latin America; Bolivia

2011
Working Paper

Managerial Practices That Promote Voice and Taking Charge among Frontline Workers

By: Julia Adler-Milstein, Sara J. Singer and Michael W. Toffel

Process-improvement ideas often come from frontline workers who speak up by voicing concerns about problems and by taking charge to resolve them. We hypothesize that organization-wide process-improvement campaigns encourage both forms of speaking up, especially voicing... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Employees; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Management Practices and Processes; Operations; Business Processes; Performance Improvement

SSRN

Read Now

12 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

How Scale Changes a Manager's Responsibilities

to one of your managers, bring it up with the manager and put yourself in their shoes as you help them with this employee. Be empathetic and manage your power carefully.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

October 2008
Article

Evaluating the CEO

By: Stephen P. Kaufman

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. After Kaufman became a CEO, he was struck by how perfunctory the board was in its... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Leadership; Managerial Roles; Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives

Find at Harvard

01 Aug 2008
What Do You Think?

Has the Time Come for “Stretch” in Management?

Summing Up Stretch—its meaning, uses, and pitfalls—could fill a book, judging from responses to this month's column. First, there appears to be limited agreement about what stretch is and how it works. Some saw it as a variation on... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

January 1996
Case

Biogen, Inc.: rBeta Interferon Manufacturing Process Development

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Biogen, Inc., a Cambridge, MA-based biotechnology company, is wrapping up a project to develop a new manufacturing process for a new drug product that will reposition the company from a purely research-oriented company to a fully integrated pharmaceutical manufacturing... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Technological Innovation; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Projects; Research and Development; Corporate Strategy; Biotechnology Industry

March 2006 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Banco Hipotecario S.A.

By: Daniel Baird Bergstresser, Arthur I Segel and Alexandra de Royere

In 2003, the chairwoman and controlling shareholder of Argentina's leading residential mortgage lender are considering how to bring the bank's restructuring to a successful conclusion as the country's economy continues to suffer from the impact of the 2001-2002... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Currency; Banks and Banking; Mortgages; Crisis Management; Competition; Argentina

29 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Work 3.0: Redefining Jobs and Companies in the Uber Age

we view employment. If we manage this shift well, we’ll be creating an engine for economic growth. Mess it up and we’ll stifle a major driver of innovation, business creation, and jobs. View Details

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu; Transportation; Web Services

18 Feb 2022
News

Behind the Research: Bias in AI with Himabindu Lakkaraju, Edward McFowland III, and Seth Neel

January 2007
Case

Robert E. Rubin (A)

By: Nitin Nohria, Robert Steven Kaplan and Nicole Davison

Bob Rubin was a businessman given the task of setting up and running the National Economic Council for the Clinton Administration. Unfamiliar with management in a political climate, Rubin worked hard to design, staff, and position the Council to make better economic... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Government and Politics; Managerial Roles; Macroeconomics; Organizational Design; Economy